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Home , City Beautiful movement, Garden city movement

FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN AMERICAN

Most historians agree that modern American city planning began in the late 1800’s. Some affix the date to 1893 and the Columbian Exposition in , though there is less orthodoxy regarding this moment than 15 years ago. In contrast to the earlier Colonial planning period (, Savannah, Williamsburg, etc.) wherein plans preceded development, planning in the 1800s generally responded to the stimulated by the in existing and haphazardly developing . The American Industrial Revolution occurred in two waves, the first in 1820-1870 and the second in 1870-1920. The U.S. grew from 7% urban in 1820 to 25% urban in 1870 and 50% urban in 1920. Several social movements categorized as precursors to modern American city planning (, sanitary reform, settlement and housing reform, planning) responded to the challenges and consequences of chaotic urbanization prior to modern planning’s beginnings. The was a fifth response at about the same time that modern planning began. The Garden Cities Movement simultaneously commenced in England and was imported soon after. American planning grew out of and hoped to provide a broader, more comprehensive vision to these movements.

Five interrelated and overlapping 1. Sanitary Reform Movement movements of the 19th Century have 2. Parks Planning/Parks Systems Movement profound effect on the first half of 3. Settlement House/Housing Reform Movement the 20th Century 4. 5. City Beautiful Movement

Movement Attributes Sanitary Reform (extensive overlap An outgrowth and response to the accelerating with and sometimes referred to as urbanization of the U.S. Accompanied by an the Public Health Movement) 1840‐ an increasingly scientific understanding of 1890. Sanitary Reform’s focus was infectious diseases ‐ from filth theory to germ infrastructure and Public Health was theory. primarily concerned with preventing and contending with infectious Primary foci: diseases and epidemics. 1.Water supply 2. Water carriage sewerage to supplant private lot waste removal. 3. Sanitary survey planning: detailed examination of diseases and associated physical conditions. Memphis/American Public Health Association/ National Board of Health 1878‐1880 4. Townsite consciousness‐not a systematic doctrine but increased awareness and sensitivity to topography, drainage, water supply, parks, crowding, density, gross conflicts (slaughter in residential areas)

Parks Planning/Parks Systems Movement Initially focused on a “large, romantic pleasure Grounds”‐offered middle and upper class Americans 'the equivalent of a day in the country.' Examples: Central (NY), Franklin Park (), Lincoln Park (Chicago). Later evolved into the conception of city‐wide, eventually regional interconnected systems of parks and parkways.

Significant events in:

Horace W. S. , Minneapolis park system proposal 1883; Minneapolis‐St. Paul regional Park system proposal, 1887 (Minneapolis implemented)

George W. Kessler, Kansas City city‐wide system of parks and , 1893 (multiple other players: Augustus Robert Dyer (wealthy business person), James Pendergrast (political boss) Thomas Swope, (philanthropist)

Charles Eliot, Sylvester Baxter, Boston ‐extensive regional park system (1891‐1893 and beyond)

Settlement House Movement/Housing Sought to contribute to urban reform through Reform living (settling) in poor, frequently immigrant or minority neighborhoods and mobilizing resources for social change. Emphasis on "learning by doing" social action (John Dewey, Jane Addams) 1886‐19teens.

Significant personalities/events:

Jane Addams, Hull House, Chicago Mary K. Simkovitch, College Settlement, Friendly Aid House, Greenwich House, of New York (all NY City), helped organize the first National Conference on City

Planning.

New York Association of Neighborhood Workers, Cooperative Social Settlement Society of the City

Jacob Riis ("How the Other Half Lives" (1890), "Children of the Poor" (1892)) and Benjamin Marsh were allied activists.

Garden City Movement ‐ England The Garden City Movement began with the work of "Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform" (1898).

Garden City Characteristics:

1. satellite garden cities surrounding central garden city, each city being essentially self‐supporting relying on the central city only for regional facilities 2. finite population: ultimate population could not be expanded, thus preventing deteriorating sprawl at its edges 3. surrounded by greenbelts and woods of public land to be used permanently as agriculture and open space 4. included concept of land rent

Howard carried out two garden city projects in England.

1. (1903‐1920) 2. Welwyn (1919‐1934)

Development of Second City ‐ Welwyn (1919)

1. designed by Louis de Soissons 2. to have population of 40,000 3. far more successful than Letchworth because location allowed workers to travel to and those living in London to work in Welwyn 4. designed with superblock street scheme

Garden City Movement in U. S. Garden City Movement (England) exerted some influence in U.S. in the teens and 1920's:

1. Forest Hills Gardens (160 acres) Russell Sage Foundation (1909) Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr. ‐a Garden not a full fledged "new town" 2. Radburn, NJ (1929) ( and ) adopted updated elements of the Garden City approach: residences in superblocks(30‐50 acres) penetrated only by cul‐de‐sacs, separated pedestrian and vehicular traffic, faced homes toward gardens, reserved the interiors of superblocks for parks, connected the superblocks by a system of walks with underpasses under the motorways. Lacked full range of land uses to be a new town 3. U.S. impact was a more complete vision of suburban residential planning and an aspiration or recognition of the much more complete new‐towns or satellite garden cities alternatives.

City Beautiful Movement Began with the Columbian Expostion (1893), Chicago

Key Actors: , Sr., Charles McKim, Augustus St. Gaudens,

First example in U.S. of great group of designed in relation to one another and in relation to open spaces

“” team could not agree on color scheme, painted it all white

Daniel Burnham justified subsequent City Beautiful plan on grounds that:

1. the beauty of public works that attract the wealthy makes pleasant the life of the poor, are accessible to all men, and create a unifying civic pride 2. the attraction of those with wealth creates a flow of money that filters down to all citizens 3. creation of broad tree‐lined avenues brings light,

air, and nature to the

City Beautiful Contributions of the City Beautiful Movement:

1. Helped revival of city planning/a central element in modern American planning. Helped lead to planning's establishment as permanent part of local government. 2. led to the professional consultant role for "planning experts" 3. Progressive Movement added the quasi‐independent planning commissions composed of citizens

Deficiencies of the Movement:

1. Insufficient response to the wide range of problems precipitated by urbanization. Dealt with peripheral and aesthetic issues not the fundamental issues of class, health, governance, environment, housing, and, and, and, … 2. catered primarily to an upper class constituency 3. treated issues affecting poor people superficially or not at all 4. beautification and adornment had limited practicality for many cities 5. lack of legitimation of any public control over the private actions that were decisive in setting the quality of urban environment 6. emphasis on parks and boulevards required public investment rather than controls

Decline of the Movement in the 1920's

1. Accommodation to automobiles required substantial energy and resources

2. Immediacies of municipal governance moderated interest in visionary utopian concepts. related to City Beautiful projects

Although City Beautiful declined, its emphasis on physical site planning was internalized in planning efforts regulating the development of the .

Planning in Transition During the 19‐teens, U.S. planning focused more on physical/engineering/infrastructure issues and began to adapt from the German model (without importing the cooperative housing, public land owner‐ ship and innovations in municipal finance which were integral to the German urban policy framework). The U.S. Progressive (political) Movement emphasized professionalization of civil service and (naively) tried to depoliticize elements of local governance through appointed boards and commissions such as planning commissions.

City Efficient Rise of City Efficient‐ 1920s

1. new emphasis of cities and American City Planning Institute on technical details of city planning brought civil engineers, lawyers, and administrators to the fore‐ front replacing architects and landscape architects 2. housing reformers and settlement house people's roles were diminished and they focused on issues out‐ side the narrowing definition of planning 3. advent of the automobile required major public works projects which drew attention away from many civic projects 4. new laws and court cases being developed resulted in land use, zoning, land control and admin‐ istrative/regulative devices replacing "" design as the focus of planning activities

Summary prepared from Laurence C. Gerckens, American City Planning Since 1900 A.D. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University, 1975. Modified by Larry Keating, FAICP, 2009